This application claims a foreign priority from German patent application 100 50 546.5, and the contents of this priority application are incorporated herein by reference.
The invention concerns a process for distribution of a program code to a plurality of measuring instruments.
Measuring instruments, for example a network analysator network analyzer), a spectrum analyzer or a signal generator, are normally run on a control computer and are coupled to the control computer via a local bus system, for example an IEC-bus, a LAN-bus or a serial interface. There is a measuring routine on the control computer that controls the measuring sequence of operation and transmits individual measuring instructions to the measuring instruments and calls up the measured data from the measuring instruments. Various measuring functions are stored in the measuring instruments themselves as firmware, which can be periodically updated by the measuring-device manufacturer to make available to the customer, for example, new measuring functions, new error-correction functions or the like, or to switch to the customer new options of the measuring instrument.
A customer of a measuring-device manufacturer often has a plurality of control computers and a plurality of measuring instruments coupled thereto. When updating the firmware (software or data of the manufacturer) it has been necessary until now for the manufacturer of the measuring instruments to send to the customer a storage medium in the form of a CD-ROM, for example, and for the customer to insert this storage medium in each of its measuring instruments and to transmit the program code of the new firmware to a local storage medium of the measuring instrument. Alternatively, it has also been possible for the measuring-device manufacturer to ship to every customer as many storage mediums, that is, for example, as many CD-ROMs as there are operating measuring instruments. This procedure has been relatively inconvenient and demands that the measuring instruments each be provided with a storage-medium reading device. Sometimes, the measuring instruments of a customer are also in a measuring environment that leads to a quick contamination of the storage-medium reading device so that a storage medium reading device on the measuring instrument can not be durably operated, rather it must be installed just for transmitting the new firmware.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for distributing a program code to a plurality of measuring instruments that is particularly uncomplicated and cost effective and that does not require a storage-medium reading device on a measuring instrument.